On Friday night, I went to the Belfast Activity Centre with Fitzroy’s youth group. It had been a long week, and I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to the experience… Climbing up walls and jumping off high things wasn’t sounding too appealing! But, off we went.
As you can see from the pictures, we spent a good bit of timing climbing up this wall… It was pretty high, and heights aren’t altogether my favourite thing… But I managed it alright after a few goes and plenty of team encouragement!
BUT…. As with all things… Escalation was inevitable…
We moved on to a challenge called “the leap of faith”. This consisted of climbing up a tall telegraph pole (probably about 20 or more feet into the air), and then standing up on a little platform, and jumping off to catch a trapeze bar out in the middle of the air…
I was pretty sure that I was not going to attempt this… I had decided that the climbing wall was enough of an achievement for the evening.
Then I decided to give it a go… I’d love to say that I changed my mind, and just decided to be adventurous and go for it… But to be honest, it probably had more to do with the teenage girls (who themselves had already done it…) in my group gathering around me and telling me to “Be a man!”… Yeah….that definitely did it….
So, as I was being harnessed up for this challenge, I still wasn’t convinced that this was something I needed to do… Until Emmy, our instructor from New Zealand asked me a question.
Emmy: “Why are you afraid?”
Me: “Cos I don’t normally jump off poles into mid-air”
Emmy: “Is this a real risk, or a perceived risk?”
This struck me. What was I really afraid of in this situation? Was it of falling? If so, that was a bit of a ridiculous worry, I knew how well I was harnessed in, I’d seen about ten people go before me, leap out into mid air and come down gently, landing softly on the ground.
What was it?
I couldn’t really put my finger on why I was afraid. So off I went… I climbed up that post, stood atop that platform, and hurled myself out into the air to that trapeze. (All, admittedly without looking down a single time….not even a glimpse…)
But I did it.
I think I learnt a valuable lesson about faith on Friday night, a lesson that has been running around my head for the last few days.
When we “risk” something, stepping out on a limb, for God. Why do we worry? So often, I worry about things, I worry about the way they are going to work out. I worry about the things that God has called me to, worrying about whether they’re going to go well, and whether I’m even able to do them in the first place. I worry about failing. I think it probably comes down to the fact that I’m not always convinced God is there to catch me if I fall.
Is this real risk, or perceived risk?
Is trusting in God a real risk, or a perceived risk?
Is God not who He claims to be? Is He not who He has promised He is?
I believe that He has promised to stand with us, to go before us in times of trial and difficulty, that He will never call us to something that, with his strength, we are not able to do.
Is trusting God a risk, or is it just something we think is risky?
I’m beginning to realise that it’s just our minds. It’s just our own worries and insecurities that make us believe that God isn’t REALLY all that trustworthy. When the truth is, He is.
Another thing I learnt was that in taking a leap of faith. In stepping out for God in something, it doesn’t matter if we are feeling the best about it. As I climbed that pole, I can wholeheartedly say that I was not feeling the best I have ever felt… I was pretty scared!
I think the problem with our churches today, is that we are taught to play it safe. To only “risk” what we know for a fact we can achieve.
What would happen if more people started making leaps of faith. If more of us started jumping out into the unknown? Could this be a church that really starts to live?
It’s not about feeling good about it. But we know, that just as I had a safety harness that was not going to break and was always there to catch me throughout, God is our harness. The one who reaches down and gives us the strength to make the jump.
Here’s to more leaps of faith.
More big jumps into the unknown with a God who we KNOW is there to catch us.
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